The Raiders

by Angelique Anjou

  The Prince thrust uselessly a couple of times and then reared upward to look at her.

  He must have seen something of her doubts in her expression. He seemed to pause as if debating whether to continue or withdraw.

  Apparently, he wasn’t ready to concede defeat. After that brief pause, he lowered himself against her and focused on kissing her senseless while he explored her with his hands.

  Her treacherous body responded regardless of her conviction that whatever he was swinging hadn’t been made for her because they weren’t the same!

  He seemed to think he could make it fit if he just lubricated it enough and pushed hard enough!

  That was so very human of him that she managed to, mostly, forget he wasn’t!

  He aligned his cock with her entrance and focused on distracting her. The moment she relaxed enough he thought it possible to breach her defenses, he thrust, wedging the head of his cock into the mouth of her sex.

  For a handful of seconds, it seemed their heated flesh welded together and she wouldn’t be able to produce enough lubrication to break the deadlock.

  But he kissed her again.

  And drove into with relentless determination and her body yielded to the greater force—with burning reluctance!

  He paused when he’d conquered the channel. She thought more to catch his breath than to allow her time to adjust, but the results were the same. Thankfully!

  The burning eased and she was able to redirect her mind from the fear of tearing to the feel of his member inside her.

  It felt indescribably good.

  And when he withdrew and thrust again, setting a desperate rhythm to match the sense of desperation their mutual hunger had aroused, it felt better by leaps and bounds. She didn’t have time to wonder if she would manage to achieve climax. His girth left no part of her channel in want of stimulation. The friction of his thrusts against the walls, pounding against her g-spot, set her on fire. His own desire, clearly evident in his harsh breaths and the deep shaking she felt in his big body, drove her swiftly toward her peak. She paused at the summit, teetering maddeningly. Clenching her eyes tightly, she focused on grasping the prize and then gasped in a sharp breath when her body took the leap and the rapturous waves began to rattle her to her soul.

  She was dimly aware that he followed her, reaching climax almost the moment her body began to shudder and quake, but she was too sublimely satisfied with her own pleasure to spare a lot of thought to his.

  Well, beyond the satisfaction that she’d proven her ‘usefulness’ to him.

  She tried not to smile at that thought, but she was so relieved that she’d not only survived the ravishment but had actually managed to enjoy it that she couldn’t completely contain it.

  Fortunately, she didn’t have to worry about him noticing it!

  He rolled off of her as soon as he’d finished and bounded off the bed as if he’d been ejected. Striding quickly toward the bathing facilities, he slammed the door behind him with a resounding bang that rattled her eardrums.

  Dismay flickered through Noelle’s satisfaction. With an effort, she pushed herself up and stared at the door in consternation.

  The sound of rushing water filtered to her through the wooden panel.

  What the hell? There was running water?

  Not only was there running water but a cloud of steam followed the Prince out when he emerged some twenty minutes later, still dripping water.

  Noelle was torn. She’d tried every frigging thing she could think of to get that damned shower to work and had finally concluded that it must be fed by a cistern built on the roof to catch rain water and that the water was frozen solid!

  She felt stupid. Obviously, she just hadn’t figured out how to work the damned thing!

  Beyond that, she’d begun to get a sinking feeling about the whole sex business because she couldn’t help but notice the Prince didn’t seem particularly impressed.

  Well! She damned sure wasn’t going to let on how impressed she’d been with his performance!

  The asshole!

  Trying to appear just as unmoved as he seemed, she got off the bed, gathered her discarded clothing and headed into the facilities.

  If the damned shower worked, she could damned well figure it out!

  She couldn’t. She tried everything and finally gave up and got dressed.

  The Prince gave her a cool look when she left the bathroom. “You did not shower,” he said disapprovingly.

  How dare the savage act like she was uncivilized! “I didn’t feel like it!” she snapped sulkily before she thought better of it.

  His brows rose, but although he narrowed his eyes at her, he apparently decided not to pursue the fight she’d stupidly tried to provoke. “Well, you must give some thought to how you might be useful to me and we will discuss it later.”

  Noelle turned to gape at the bastard in disbelief.

  Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately given her circumstances, he was oblivious to her outrage since he’d already turned his back on her and strode to the door. By the time he reached it, she’d had time to recover enough to reconsider glaring at him, or worse, throwing something. She thought he paused and looked back at her, but she was glaring at the fire on the hearth so she wasn’t sure.

  * * * *

  “Fuck!” Drak muttered as he closed the door behind him, lifting a shaking hand to scrub it over his face.

  He wasn’t sure of what had just happened beyond mind-blowing sex, but it had certainly been that and he was in no condition to think straight at the moment, let alone figure it out—or in fact anything! As in, whether or not he had just made a hell of a mistake in his handling of her.

  Shaking his head, he considered heading down to the great hall and then reconsidered and headed up to the battlements instead to clear his head.

  On the one hand, arriving in the great hall befuddled from a bout of great sex might more firmly impress upon his men that he was serious in his claim on the woman. On the other, it could be dangerous if he appeared to be vulnerable where she was concerned.

  He trusted his men—to an extent and within reason. He didn’t trust all of his men with his life, however.

  * * * *

  Noelle’s anger evolved into an urge to cry almost the moment the door closed behind the Prince. She wasn’t sure of why she felt the urge. It wasn’t from being just that furious—because she wasn’t. It wasn’t fear based, because she discovered she had lost the bulk of her fear.

  It shouldn’t have been emotional wounding.

  She had a sneaking suspicion that it might be, however—maybe purely injured ego and maybe disappointment.

  She found him attractive—in a scary sort of way.

  There was no getting around the fact that he was an absolutely magnificent male specimen—alien or not!

  She couldn’t think of anything he’d done, however, to engage even a modicum of real affection—beyond seeing to her comfort and not killing her or raping and torturing her.

  Were gratitude and admiration enough to sow the seeds of affection, though?

  Frowning thoughtfully, she went back into the bathroom to study the facilities again and see if she could figure out how the damned shower and /or lavatory worked. If she could just get water! Hot water!

  How nice it would’ve been to thaw out beneath the flow of hot water when she’d spent so many days freezing!

  Of course, the boys had been diligent about bringing fuel for the fire and keeping it up, but the fireplace was far from effective at heating the cavernous room! The only place that was close to comfortable was the hearth area. The warmth barely penetrated a yard into the room.

  What was the anatomy of affection, she wondered?

  She hadn’t allowed herself to think about her grandmother for a very long time, but she summoned her memories, trying to dissect her feelings even though she’d never tried, before, to figure out why she loved her Grandmother. She just accepted that she did.

  Was i
t feelings and emotions that defied definition? Or was love based on need?

  She realized abruptly that it probably was and that that didn’t detract from the love in any way. She’d needed her grandmother to survive. Her grandmother had provided everything she needed—including affection. Food, warmth, shelter—and emotional support—advice, guidance based on her own experiences. Her grandmother had been mentor and caregiver and protector. Love had sprung from those things. They were the food that fed it.

  So maybe it wasn’t as bizarre or unreasonable as it had seemed on the surface that she might have developed some affection for the barbarian Prince? From the moment he’d captured her he was her lifeline—her survival was completely in his hands.

  * * * *

  “I don’t suppose either of you guys know how to make the damned shower work?” Noelle asked when the boys arrived with the tray of food and the fuel for her fire.

  Both boys stopped in their tracks and stared at her as if some beast had suddenly displayed an ability to talk.

  Annoyance flickered through her. “What? You thought I couldn’t talk?”

  The youngest of the two snickered. “We don’t bathe in winter.”

  Noelle wondered if she looked as horrified as she felt.

  The older boy drove his elbow into the young boy’s side. “Ain’t true! We don’t shower because this is the only one that still works. Father says we have to bathe at least once a week! And I do and if you aren’t he’s going to be angry.”

  Oh that was so much better!

  Actually, she supposed that was a death defying act considering how freaking cold the castle was and she doubted they did much to get dirty or sweat in the winter ….

  The young boy paled, but then his expression set angrily and a jolt went through Noelle. This child, obviously, was also Drak’s son. There was no mistaking the resemblance when the child was feeling obstinate! “That’s what I meant,” he muttered. “No showers ‘cause this is the only one that still works.”

  “Well, it isn’t doing me a bit of good,” Noelle pointed out irritably, “because I don’t know how it works.”

  Shrugging after he’d stared at her suspiciously for several moments, the older child set the tray he was carrying down and headed into the bathroom. The younger boy unceremoniously dropped the sticks he’d brought in and followed.

  Curbing the urge to tell the youngest to clean up the mess he’d just made, Noelle followed both boys into the facilities.

  It became clear fairly quickly that they had no more idea of how to make the plumbing work than she had. They were game to search, however, and Noelle hadn’t had a great deal of luck figuring it out by herself so she was perfectly willing to have them work on the problem for a while in the hopes that, between the three of them, they might resolve the dilemma without her having to resort to asking the Prince.

  The cooperative attitude of the boys, unfortunately, degenerated fairly quickly to squabbling between them, which gave Noelle more insight about the two than she’d expected.

  They hadn’t grown up together. They had not, in point of fact, been together much more than a year as far as she could determine. Since at least some of the comments had to do with their mothers, she discovered they also didn’t have the same mother—which seemed to be more typical than not.

  The older child was a bully. At least, he bullied the younger—which meant it might be an integral part of his personality and might be no more than sibling rivalry.

  That was certainly apparent—the sibling rivalry—although she was a little confused about the source since the older boy was his father’s second heir and the youngest didn’t seem to care.

  He just wanted to go home to his mother, Noelle discovered when the older boy began to taunt him about it.

  “Now that’s just plain mean!” Noelle said tightly, although she’d struggled to stay out of their business up to that point. “And not at all the kind of behavior one should expect out of a … Prince! He’s not even half your age!”

  At that point the boy, Kadin, whirled to glare at her. “What would you know of it?” he snarled. “You’re just the Prince’s whore! He didn’t even want you to breed you!”

  Noelle thought it was the venom in the declaration more than the statement itself that shocked her.

  Well, it was also the prejudice he displayed when he had no reason to dislike her that she was aware of, let alone hate her, and the ugly insight into the general attitude of these men toward the women they took as captives.

  She shouldn’t have been surprised at it. She shouldn’t even leap to the conclusion that the boy’s speech reflected the general attitude, but then he’d had to pick it up from somewhere, hadn’t he? And she didn’t think they would capture and use the women as they did if they had any respect for them.

  She had to wrestle again with the urge to lower herself to argue with the child. It was fortunate that she did because the three of them had been so focused on tossing insults around that none of them had heard the Prince enter the room and cross to the door. It wasn’t until she heard the scrape of his boots on the stone floor, quite close, and sensed his massive presence looming over her, in fact, that she realized he was there.

  His expression was … unnerving.

  Noelle was more cowed by the anger she could see simmering just below the surface than she had been at any time since she’d been captured.

  Because, she realized, she hadn’t actually seen him angry before.

  His gaze moved from her to the boys and Noelle instinctively followed that look.

  The youngest child had turned paper white with fear and Noelle’s heart clenched painfully at the look on his face. She could no more have ignore it than she could’ve simply commanded her heart to stop beating. Without even stopping to consider the possible consequences, she gathered the child close, sheltering him protectively.

  If she thought she’d seen the full brunt of Drak’s anger before, she discovered she’d been dead wrong. The look he gave her that time made her go weak in the knees.

  “My sons are under my protection,” he said through clenched teeth. “They do not need your protection!”

  He transferred his attention to the boys. “Wait for me in the solar.”

  Both boys immediately ducked their heads respectfully and fled—abandoning Noelle to face Drak’s wrath completely on her own. He glared at her for a long moment and finally pushed past her. Striding across the bathroom, he slammed his palm against a small, square tile that was protruding slightly. Instantly, steaming hot water began to pour from an opening above the bathing alcove. Turning, he met her gaze for a long moment and then strode from the room.

  Noelle went limp when she heard the outer door slam. For a few moments she debated following him and leaping between him and the boys if he had it in mind to do harm to them, but then she dismissed that insane and totally useless idea.

  The oldest, at least, had been with his father for a while and showed no signs of ill treatment. And, she abruptly recalled, she’d never seen any sign in either boy, before, that they were afraid of their father. Their reaction had been because they weren’t used to seeing his temper and they knew they were in trouble because they’d done or said something they shouldn’t.

  She’d meddled when she hadn’t needed to and stepped between a parent and child, interfered with their father’s attempt to discipline them.

  No wonder Drak had looked so furious!

  Maybe he’d even heard her comment to his son!

  Not but what the little bastard hadn’t needed a good smack for speaking to her in such a way! And being so hateful to the little one who was homesick!

  Regardless of her current circumstances, she was an adult and he was a child and children should be taught some respect for their elders! And not allowed to be so mean to those younger and weaker than them.

  She shook her head. She was no psychiatrist. And she knew absolutely nothing about the dynamics of the family here—in general
—or this one in particular.

  It seemed more screwed up to her, though, than things back home on Earth … and that was saying something because the need to provide financial support for their families had left parents with almost no time to parent their children and contributed to a general breakdown in the family unit. Dysfunctional had become the norm not the exception.

  Dragging in a shaky breath, she began to strip her clothing off resolutely and then moved cautiously toward the steaming stream of water.

  It was very hot, almost too hot, but she had no idea how to adjust it to a more comfortable temperature and she desperately wanted a hot bath.

  * * * *

  Drak didn’t know who he was most pissed at—himself, his son, Kadin, or Noelle. He supposed that was because he was thoroughly pissed off with all three.

  Kadin’s comments had enraged him—not the least because Noelle had pointed out an unpleasant truth he had been at great pains to ignore.

  Kadin had no place in the line of succession—let alone as second in line. He did not have the temperament for it. He was lazy, jealous natured and spiteful, and he was a bully.

  If he ascended to the throne the entire clan would degenerate under his rule—if he did not fall in short order to an assassin.

  He shook those thoughts after a moment, trying yet again to convince himself that he was wrong about Kadin and the boy was just displaying behavior typical of boys transitioning from childhood into manhood. Once he outgrew childhood completely, Kulle would whip him into shape and he would learn behavior more becoming of a Prince.

  Both boys looked at him guiltily and uneasily when he reached the solar. He studied them for a long moment. “Tell me, Kadin, why was Jules with you in my suite when he is supposed to be with Merl learning his lessons?”

  Jules gaped at him and then glanced at Kadin, making it clear he had thought he was doing his father’s bidding.

  Kadin chewed his lip but said nothing.

  Drak’s lips tightened. “Why don’t you tell me, Jules?”